When we enter the seventy-fifth floor, the hellhound charges at us.
It’s slower than the one on the previous floor, so I wonder if it’s under level eighty.
But I soon notice that’s not right.
“Summon!”
I let out without thinking.
Did it slow down on purpose to give itself time to summon others? They never summoned anything while moving before, so it catches us completely off guard.
One of the four summoned hellhounds heads towards me.
I jump back to dodge it as it attacks with its front legs, but the slash I unleash as I land doesn’t feel right.
I look around while still paying attention to the monster in front of me, and see Sora taking on two, and Sera and Kaina taking on one each.
None of them are going after Chris and Mia, so that’s a relief. I can focus on the one in front of me.
Also, Chris and Hikari are supporting Sora. If Sora can beat the summoned monster in front of him and draw the boss towards him, we can beat the others. At that point, victory will be ours.
But then something unexpected happens. Sora and the others beat the summoned monster Sora was facing, and as Sora faces the boss, Chris and Hikari come over to support us.
But then the three remaining summoned monsters change. They gather, with two in front and one behind them, and fight in that formation.
The two in front attack from up close, while the other fires magic bullets from behind it.
Kaina guards Chris and Mia, while the rest of us go out to try to beat them.
Hikari takes on one of them, while Sera and I beat the other one in front.
I quickly swap my weapons to the ones with the Absorption skill, but after taking one hit from Sera, the hellhound designates her a threat and pays less attention to me.
I use that opportunity to sap its magic energy.
Hikari and Chris also decide this is the time to attack, and attack this same hellhound.
The hellhound is clearly at a disadvantage before these fierce attacks. The body that was being guarded against our attacks is now visibly wounded.
But just as Sera lands the final attack…
“Eh?”
We hear the same thing we heard at the start, and suddenly, ten new monsters are summoned.
I peek over at Sora, and see him fighting the boss.
Then what happened?
It was the other hellhound, that took distance from us before we knew it. It was attacking from a distance at first, but we didn’t notice it stopped.
Was it so it could summon? But the records in the guild didn’t say anything about summoned monsters summoning others.
“Kaina, look after Chris and Mia. Sera, Hikari, let’s reduce their numbers!”
It’d be nice if Sora could help, but that’s no good at this point.
I swap to the mithril swords, and use Gale to start slashing. My top priority is to take down as many as I can.
Chris also uses fire spirit magic while Kaina covers her.
Hikari uses Projectile Slash without holding back, and Sera pushes towards the monsters to furiously swing her axes.
Thankfully, summoning more monsters means they got weaker too, but the big number of monsters is still troubling.
Not to mention that when Chris uses her area of effect magic to defeat several of them, they continue summoning others. We managed to take a few down too at the start, but we can’t keep up at this rate.
The fact that our stamina is slowly going down doesn’t help things. As for wounds… Mia’s holy magic means they don’t stay on us for very long.
Normally, people have to be closer to the target to heal, so she must be trying really hard to be able to heal from a distance.
“Rurika, you’re too far forward.”
“! Thanks Sora.”
That was dangerous. Going too far forward means getting surrounded.
I knew that, but the way the hellhounds keep coming made me rush.
I take a deep breath and look around.
There really are too many. Sora is firing magic while fighting the boss, but we can’t keep up.
Should we hang on until they can’t summon anymore? That’s no good. What we read in those documents was about the boss summoning monsters.
Then what? Our only choice is to take them down faster than they can be summoned, but there are just not enough of us.
We can do area damage with magic infused throwing weapons, but they are not powerful enough to actually beat them. At most, we can deal some damage and disturb their incantations.
Should we rely on Chris? No, even she has a limit.
All we can do is keep trying… But there are too many.
There’s only one option, but I’ve never done it. Still, I have to.
“Sera, I’ll deal with the ones on the left, so take care of the ones on the right.”
I give Chris a signal too, so she knows which I’m targeting.
Then I infuse the mithril swords with magic energy, and run towards the hellhounds with the Gale skill.
But I’m not doing it to attack while I move, I’m doing it to increase the rotation speed of my arms.
I don’t know if I can do it, but… No, I have to!
I get closer like I always do, go under the hellhounds’ front legs, and swing my swords while using Gale.
I slash, slash, and slash at an incredible speed.
My body is screaming and it feels like my arms are going to get ripped off me, but even as it feels like the wounds will force me to stop, I keep at it.
A light engulfs me and soothes the pain. It’s Mia. But it soon starts hurting again.
This keeps repeating as I keep taking them down. Cut, cut, cut.
I keep moving my legs while cutting to dodge them, again, and again, and again.
The time it takes to take one down has sharply gone down. One goes down, then another, and then another near it.
Before I know it, there isn’t a single hellhound near me.
I turn around and face where they were, but I lose strength in my legs and collapse… But someone catches me.
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